Develop Reference

How to correctly highlight buttons on click?

So I have built an application in C# using Winforms and my application uses a few different buttons. I'd like to have a highlight on the button that has been clicked to show what 'tab' you're in.
I've tried doing the following;
// BUTTONS //
private void dashboard_btn_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
// Load Form
OpenChildForm(new FormDashboard());
dashboard_btn.FlatAppearance.BorderColor = Color.Red;
dashboard_btn.FlatAppearance.BorderSize = 1;
}
However, this of course doesn't work nicely since it adds a border around the button but when I click another button the border also stays around the previous button.
How would you implement a feature to add a border around the button that get's clicked but have the border disappear after you click another button?
Thank you for any feedback!
EDIT:
I've implemented Jimi's advice and used the Leave event to change the border around the button back to 0. However I'm not sure how to implement this in a global way so all my buttons are subscribed to this event.
My code now looks like this;
// BUTTONS //
private void dashboard_btn_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
// Load Form
OpenChildForm(new FormDashboard());
// Button Highlight
dashboard_btn.FlatAppearance.BorderColor = Color.Red;
dashboard_btn.FlatAppearance.BorderSize = 1;
}
// BUTTON REMOVE HIGHLIGHT //
private void dashboard_btn_Leave(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
dashboard_btn.FlatAppearance.BorderSize = 0;
}
EDIT 2:
I ended up using Jimi's example and this worked for me :)

This might lend itself to a RadioButton style functionality because clicking a different radio button in the same container will uncheck the others. So, to implement the "generalized approach" that you mention in your comment, you could make a simple custom RadioButtonEx class where the Appearance property is set to Button then change your border style when the Checked property changes. In this example, the Click event has been changed to static so that clicking on any button directs the event to the common onAnyClick method.
public partial class MainForm : Form
{
public MainForm()
{
InitializeComponent();
RadioButtonEx.Click += onAnyClick;
}
private void onAnyClick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
label1.Text = ((RadioButtonEx)sender).Text;
}
}
public class RadioButtonEx : RadioButton
{
public static new event EventHandler Click;
public RadioButtonEx()
{
FlatAppearance.BorderColor = Color.Red;
FlatAppearance.BorderSize = 1;
Appearance = Appearance.Button;
}
protected override void OnCheckedChanged(EventArgs e)
{
base.OnCheckedChanged(e);
if(Checked)
{
FlatStyle = FlatStyle.Flat;
Click?.Invoke(this, EventArgs.Empty);
}
else
{
FlatStyle = FlatStyle.Standard;
}
}
}

Changing all Button background except button clicked

I am working on a form that has lots of buttons. When the user clicks one button the background should change color. If they click another button on the form its background should change color and the previous buttons color should return back to the original color.
I can do this by hard coding in every button but this form has alot of buttons. I am sure there has to be a more efficient way of doing this
I have this so far
foreach (Control c in this.Controls)
{
if (c is Button)
{
if (c.Text.Equals("Button 2"))
{
Btn2.BackColor = Color.GreenYellow;
}
else
{
}
}
}
I can get the background for Btn2 to change. How would i change the background for all the other buttons in the form. Any ideas how i could do this without having to hardcode each button.

The code below will work without regard to the number of buttons on the form. Simply set the button_Click method to be the event handler of all buttons. When you click on a button, its background will change color. When you click on any other button, that button's background will change color, and the previously-colored button's background will revert to the default background color.
// Stores the previously-colored button, if any
private Button lastButton = null;
...
// The event handler for all button's who should have color-changing functionality
private void button_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
// Change the background color of the button that was clicked
Button current = (Button)sender;
current.BackColor = Color.GreenYellow;
// Revert the background color of the previously-colored button, if any
if (lastButton != null)
lastButton.BackColor = SystemColors.Control;
// Update the previously-colored button
lastButton = current;
}

This will work as long as you don't have any control containers (eg Panels)
foreach (Control c in this.Controls)
{
Button btn = c as Button;
if (btn != null) // if c is another type, btn will be null
{
if (btn.Text.Equals("Button 2"))
{
btn.BackColor = Color.GreenYellow;
}
else
{
btn.BackColor = Color.PreviousColor;
}
}
}

if your buttons are inside of a panel do the code below, in foreach
you will get all the buttons inside of pnl2Buttons panel and then try to pass the text name of the button that you want to change the background
and the rest will have a SeaGreen color.
foreach (Button oButton in pnl2Buttons.Controls.OfType<Button>())
{
if (oButton.Text == clickedButton)
{
oButton.BackColor = Color.DodgerBlue;
}
else
{
oButton.BackColor = Color.SeaGreen;
}
}

Elaborating on the answer from #Brett Wolfington in 2013...
You can use a simple method to reduce the code in the mouse button_Click events methods.
Below I use the method Chgcolor and invoke it via a one liner in my button_Click events. It helps to reduce the redundancy and by calling current.BackColor = Color.GreenYellow; after all the checks I can now click on 1 button repeatedly without the color disappearing.
Example below from Visual Studio community 2022
private Button? lastButton = null;
private void Chgcolor(Button current)
{
if (lastButton != null)
{
lastButton.BackColor = SystemColors.Control;
}
lastButton = current;
current.BackColor = Color.GreenYellow;
}
private void Button_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Chgcolor((Button)sender);//call the check color method
}
private void Button2_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Chgcolor((Button)sender);//call the check color method
}

Changing color to status bar

Ok I am still learning this...
I have Googled and done some research but did not find what I am looking for.
I'm trying to Add a status bar, which displays the current color in the background. This should update regardless of how the user changed the background color (Context menu, Menu bar, Buttons).
I already added the status bar, but I am not too sure on how to get it to display when you click on the button with the color or when you use the context menu. So I have to go in each one of those code to change or make a public class with the status bar.
Below you can find an image of what I intend to do:
If you look on the bottom it say red background and it is also highlighted to red. When I click on the blue or the green I need it to change over also.
What would be the best way to accomplish this?
This is my code from the toolstrip:
private void toolStripButton1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
this.BackColor = System.Drawing.Color.Red;
}
private void toolStripButton2_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
this.BackColor = System.Drawing.Color.Green;
}
private void toolStripButton3_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
this.BackColor = System.Drawing.Color.Blue;
}
This code is from my context menu:
private void redToolStripMenuItem1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
this.BackColor = System.Drawing.Color.Red;
}
private void greenToolStripMenuItem1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
this.BackColor = System.Drawing.Color.Green;
}
private void blueToolStripMenuItem1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
this.BackColor = System.Drawing.Color.Blue;
}
I am trying to figure out the status bar right now.
Edit I figure out what I had to do. I needed to go back on my form page and edit the toolstrip. Thanks for the help guys and girls.

Make all the buttons use the same event. And then check the sender. If you assign greenButton, blueButton etc tags to the buttons then you can use this:
private void ColorButtons_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Control item = (Control)sender;
if(item.tag == "greenColor")
this.BackColor = Color.Green;
else if(item.tag == "blueColor")
this.BackColor = Color.Blue;
// and so on
}

The best solution is to react to the background color change of your main form. You can do this either by handling BackColorChanged event or overriding OnBackColorChanged protected method in your main form class.

You can use a method to change the color, and in this method, set the text and/or color of your status bar.
So instead of setting (for instance)
this.BackColor = System.Drawing.Color.Blue;
you'd call
this.SetColor(System.Drawing.Color.Blue);
and in SetColor(Color), you handle the text change.
For instance, you could use this method :
private void SetColor(System.Drawing.Color c)
{
this.BackColor = c;
this.toolStripStatusLabel1.Text = c.Name;
}

Altough you are not using a good method rigth now (other answers have better methods), you can easily fix it. Since you want to change the background color of a control inside the status bar, you can do it in several places:
You can have a function that change that receive a color and change the control according to that. In your example, the label on the strip bar is red, and you already change it on designer. Well, at runtime you can do the same, using code ;). the label has a name. just add a function something like this:
private void ChangeColor(mycolor as System.Drawing.Color)
{
yourlabelcontrol.BackColor = mycolor;
yourlabelcontrol.Text = mycolor.Name;
}
You can also execute this on every action that change a color.
You can have one function that change the color of everything (like this one, but change the color for everthing)

Buttons in a Visual Studios form application

Sorry if this is a dumb question, I'm taking an intro to programming class and need a bit of help with this project I'm working on.
I'm trying to write an application that has about 30 buttons. One common thing I want is for all the buttons to turn yellow when clicked. If they're clicked a second time, they change back to the default color. right now I use the code:
private void btn_1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
btn_1.BackColor = Color.Yellow;
}
But that only turns the buttons yellow, I can't turn them "off" by clicking it a second time.
Also, when I'm creating these button events in VS2010, I end up with 30 different event handlers for each button..Is there a way to get them all to do the same thing without having to write all the repetitive code?
I'm guessing that I would have to write my own buttons class? How would I go about doing that? Do i need to create a class library which inherits Buttons?
Sorry for the noob questions. THanks

If every button has a specific action that needs to be performed, then yes, you need to have a click handler for each; however, you can encapsulate the common behavior in a single method.
For example:
private void btn_1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
ToggleColor((Button)sender);
//rest of the code specific to this button
}
private void ToggleColor (Button button)
{
if(button.Color==Color.Yellow;
button.Color=Color.Black;
else
button.Color=Color.Yellow;
}
Note that above code is not tested.
Now, if all the buttons do the same thing, you can just set the on click handlers for all of them to be btn_1_Click; for example.

private void btn_1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (btn_1.BackColor != Color.Yellow)
{
btn_1.BackColor = Color.Yellow
}
else
{
btn_1.BackColor = Color.Control;
}
}
this is switching default and yellow

If all buttons do the exact same thing you can assign the same event handler to all buttons (instead of btn_1_Click, btn_2_Click etc... you'd have btton_click) - you can select this handler in the properties of each button.

You don't have to write your own class. You can simply assign all your buttons to the same event handler, like this:
button1.Click += new EventHandler(myEventHandler);
button2.Click += new EventHandler(myEventHandler);
button3.Click += new EventHandler(myEventHandler);
button4.Click += new EventHandler(myEventHandler);
Just keep in mind that your event handler has this signature:
private void myEventHandler(object sender, EventArgs e)
By doing that, all your buttons, when clicked, will trigger the same method.
Now to control the color, what you can do is create a simple property on your form which would hold the last color applied. It could be an enum, then you could simply check its value and apply the other one to the buttons, like this:
// Declare your enum:
private enum Colors { Yellow, Default }
private Colors ActualColor = Colors.Default;
// Write your custom event handler:
private void myEventHandler(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (ActualColor == Colors.Default)
{
// Apply yellow to buttons
ActualColor = Colors.Yellow;
}
else
{
// Apply default
ActualColor = Colors.Default;
}
}

In order to keep track whether it is the 'second time' you press the button, you should declare a variable OUTSIDE the method, which indicates whether you already pressed the button or not.
For example:
public bool IsButtonYellow;
private void btn_1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) {
if(!IsButtonYellow) {
btn.BackColor = Color.Yellow;
IsButtonYellow = true;
}
else {
btn.BackColor = Control.DefaultBackColor;
IsButtonYellow = false;
}
}

Yes:
Create your own button class
Inherit from Button
Implement the handler in your button class and you're done
You can do something simple like this:
public class MyButton : Button
{
private bool _buttonState;
protected override void OnClick(EventArgs e)
{
base.OnClick(e);
if (_buttonState)
{
BackColor = Color.Yellow;
}
else
{
BackColor = Color.White;
}
}
}
Then in your code you can just create as many of these "MyButton" objects as you need, with no code repetition.

To make all buttons use the same event handler in VS2010:
Click once on a button to select it.
In the “properties” window: click on the “lightning” (=events).
Paste the first button’s event name (btn_1_Click) next to “Click”.
Do the same for every button.
As for changing the color:
See answer by killie01.
Good luck.

How can I disable a tab inside a TabControl?

Is there a way to disable a tab in a TabControl?

Cast your TabPage to a Control, then set the Enabled property to false.
((Control)this.tabPage).Enabled = false;
Therefore, the tabpage's header will still be enabled but its contents will be disabled.

The TabPage class hides the Enabled property. That was intentional as there is an awkward UI design problem with it. The basic issue is that disabling the page does not also disable the tab. And if try to work around that by disabling the tab with the Selecting event then it does not work when the TabControl has only one page.
If these usability problems do not concern you then keep in mind that the property still works, it is merely hidden from IntelliSense. If the FUD is uncomfortable then you can simply do this:
public static void EnableTab(TabPage page, bool enable) {
foreach (Control ctl in page.Controls) ctl.Enabled = enable;
}

You can simply use:
tabPage.Enabled = false;
This property is not shown, but it works without any problems.
You can program the Selecting event on TabControler to make it impossible to change to a non-editable tab:
private void tabControler_Selecting(object sender, TabControlCancelEventArgs e)
{
if (e.TabPageIndex < 0) return;
e.Cancel = !e.TabPage.Enabled;
}

You could register the "Selecting" event and cancel the navigation to the tab page:
private void tabControl1_Selecting(object sender, TabControlCancelEventArgs e)
{
if (e.TabPage == tabPage2)
e.Cancel = true;
}
Another idea is to put all the controls on the tabpage in a Panel control and disable the panel! Smiley
You could also remove the tabpage from the tabControl1.TabPages collection. That would hide the tabpage.
Credits go to littleguru # Channel 9.

Presumably, you want to see the tab in the tab control, but you want it to be "disabled" (i.e., greyed, and unselectable). There is no built-in support for this, but you can override the drawing mechanism to give the desired effect.
An example of how to do this is provided here.
The magic is in this snippet from the presented source, and in the DisableTab_DrawItem method:
this.tabControl1.DrawMode = TabDrawMode.OwnerDrawFixed;
this.tabControl1.DrawItem += new DrawItemEventHandler( DisableTab_DrawItem );

Extending upon Cédric Guillemette answer, after you disable the Control:
((Control)this.tabPage).Enabled = false;
...you may then handle the TabControl's Selecting event as:
private void tabControl_Selecting(object sender, TabControlCancelEventArgs e)
{
e.Cancel = !((Control)e.TabPage).Enabled;
}

This will remove the tab page, but you'll need to re-add it when you need it:
tabControl1.Controls.Remove(tabPage2);
If you are going to need it later, you might want to store it in a temporary tabpage before the remove and then re-add it when needed.

The only way is to catch the Selecting event and prevent a tab from being activated.

The most tricky way is to make its parent equals null (make the tab alone without parent):
tabPage.Parent = null;
And when you want to return it back (will return it back at the end of pages collection) :
tabPage.Parent = tabControl;
And if you want to return it back in a specific location among the pages you can use :
tabControl.TabPages.Insert(indexLocationYouWant, tabPage);

I had to handle this a while back. I removed the Tab from the TabPages collection (I think that's it) and added it back in when the conditions changed. But that was only in Winforms where I could keep the tab around until I needed it again.

I've removed tab pages in the past to prevent the user from clicking them. This probably isn't the best solution though because they may need to see that the tab page exists.

Using events, and the properties of the tab control you can enable/disable what you want when you want. I used one bool that is available to all methods in the mdi child form class where the tabControl is being used.
Remember the selecting event fires every time any tab is clicked. For large numbers of tabs a "CASE" might be easier to use than a bunch of ifs.
public partial class Form2 : Form
{
bool formComplete = false;
public Form2()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
formComplete = true;
tabControl1.SelectTab(1);
}
private void tabControl1_Selecting(object sender, TabControlCancelEventArgs e)
{
if (tabControl1.SelectedTab == tabControl1.TabPages[1])
{
tabControl1.Enabled = false;
if (formComplete)
{
MessageBox.Show("You will be taken to next tab");
tabControl1.SelectTab(1);
}
else
{
MessageBox.Show("Try completing form first");
tabControl1.SelectTab(0);
}
tabControl1.Enabled = true;
}
}
}

I've solved this problem like this:
I've got 3 tabs and I want to keep user at the first tab if he didnt log in,
so on the SelectingEvent of TabControl I wrote
if (condition) { TabControl.Deselect("2ndPage"); TabControl.Deselect("3dPage"); }

The user cannot click on tabs to navigate, but they can use the two buttons (Next and Back). The user cannot continue to the next if the //conditions are no met.
private int currentTab = 0;
private void frmOneTimeEntry_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
tabMenu.Selecting += new TabControlCancelEventHandler(tabMenu_Selecting);
}
private void tabMenu_Selecting(object sender, TabControlCancelEventArgs e)
{
tabMenu.SelectTab(currentTab);
}
private void btnNextStep_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
switch(tabMenu.SelectedIndex)
{
case 0:
//if conditions met GoTo
case 2:
//if conditions met GoTo
case n:
//if conditions met GoTo
{
CanLeaveTab:
currentTab++;
tabMenu.SelectTab(tabMenu.SelectedIndex + 1);
if (tabMenu.SelectedIndex == 3)
btnNextStep.Enabled = false;
if (btnBackStep.Enabled == false)
btnBackStep.Enabled = true;
CannotLeaveTab:
;
}
private void btnBackStep_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
currentTab--;
tabMenu.SelectTab(tabMenu.SelectedIndex - 1);
if (tabMenu.SelectedIndex == 0)
btnBackStep.Enabled = false;
if (btnNextStep.Enabled == false)
btnNextStep.Enabled = true;
}

tabControl.TabPages.Remove(tabPage1);

This is an old question, but someone may benefit from my addition. I needed a TabControl that would show hidden tabs successively (after an action was performed on the current tab). So, I made a quick class to inherit from and called HideSuccessive() on Load:
public class RevealingTabControl : TabControl
{
private Action _showNextRequested = delegate { };
public void HideSuccessive()
{
var tabPages = this.TabPages.Cast<TabPage>().Skip(1);
var queue = new ConcurrentQueue<TabPage>(tabPages);
tabPages.ToList().ForEach(t => t.Parent = null);
_showNextRequested = () =>
{
if (queue.TryDequeue(out TabPage tabPage))
tabPage.Parent = this;
};
}
public void ShowNext() => _showNextRequested();
}

There is the XtraTabPage.PageEnabled property allowing you to disable certain pages.

Here the solution that i implement:
private void switchTapPage(TabPage tabPage)
{
foreach(TabPage page in tabControl1.TabPages)
{
tabControl1.TabPages.Remove(page);
}
tabControl1.TabPages.Add(tabPage);
}
Basically, i just call this method sending the tabPage that i currently need to show, the method will remove all the tabPages on the tabControl and after that it will just add the one that i sent it.
So the rest of the tabHeaders will not shown and they will be inaccessible, because they dont even exists in the tabControl.
I took the idea from the #stormenet answer.

You can do it through the tabpages: tabPage1.Hide(), tabPage2.Show() etc.

In the form load event if we write this.tabpage.PageEnabled = false, the tabpage will be disabled.

Assume that you have these controls:
TabControl with name tcExemple.
TabPages with names tpEx1 and tpEx2.
Try it:
Set DrawMode of your TabPage to OwnerDrawFixed;
After InitializeComponent(), make sure that tpEx2 is not enable by adding this code:
((Control)tcExemple.TabPages["tpEx2").Enabled = false;
Add to Selection tcExemple event the code below:
private void tcExemple_Selecting(object sender, TabControlCancelEventArgs e)
{
if (!((Control)e.TabPage).Enabled)
{
e.Cancel = true;
}
}
Attach to DrawItem event of tcExemple this code:
private void tcExemple_DrawItem(object sender, DrawItemEventArgs e)
{
TabPage page = tcExemple.TabPages[e.Index];
if (!((Control)page).Enabled)
{
using (SolidBrush brush = new SolidBrush(SystemColors.GrayText))
{
e.Graphics.DrawString(page.Text, page.Font, brush, e.Bounds);
}
}
else
{
using (SolidBrush brush = new SolidBrush(page.ForeColor))
{
e.Graphics.DrawString(page.Text, page.Font, brush, e.Bounds);
}
}
}
It will make the second tab non-clickable.

I could not find an appropriate answer to the question. There looks to be no solution to disable the specific tab. What I did is to pass the specific tab to a variable and in SelectedIndexChanged event put it back to SelectedIndex:
//variable for your specific tab
int _TAB = 0;
//here you specify your tab that you want to expose
_TAB = 1;
tabHolder.SelectedIndex = _TAB;
private void tabHolder_SelectedIndexChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (_TAB != 0) tabHolder.SelectedIndex = _TAB;
}
So, you don't actually disable the tab, but when another tab is clicked it always returns you to the selected tab.

in C# 7.0, there is a new feature called Pattern Matching. You can disable all tabs via Type Pattern.
foreach (Control control in Controls)
{
// the is expression tests the variable and
// assigned it to a new appropriate variable type
if (control is TabControl tabs)
{
tabs.Enabled = false;
}
}

Use:
tabControl1.TabPages[1].Enabled = false;
By writing this code, the tab page won't be completely disabled (not being able to select), but its internal content will be disabled which I think satisfy your needs.

The solution is very simple.
Remove/comment this line
this.tabControl.Controls.Add(this.YourTabName);
in IntializeComponent() method in MainForm.cs

MyTabControl.SelectedTab.Enabled = false;